Cost of a role · BLS May 2025
What 50 jobs cost a US employer, and where AI already shows up in the work
Median wages from BLS for office and knowledge jobs, with benefits and payroll taxes added, pay in every state, and each job's core tasks checked against Anthropic's record of what people use Claude for.
Every figure is copied from a public source file, named on each page.
25%on top of the wage, at a business with under 50 staff
- Total compensation
- $37.64/h
- Wages
- $27.88/h
- Paid leave
- $2.34/h
- Ratio applied
- 1.2455
BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (2026 Q2).
Benefits and payroll taxes add about 25% to what a US small business pays in wages, so a receptionist on the median $38,010 costs about $47,340 a year. Across these 50 jobs, 217 of 471 core tasks showed up in Claude.ai conversations in May 2026.
Office and administrative support
Customer Service RepresentativeMedian wage $44,770. 2 of 7 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$55,760a year, loaded
Office ClerkMedian wage $45,010. 7 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$56,060a year, loaded
Administrative AssistantMedian wage $47,540. 4 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$59,210a year, loaded
Office ManagerMedian wage $69,500. 3 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$86,560a year, loaded
BookkeeperMedian wage $50,670. 4 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$63,110a year, loaded
Medical SecretaryMedian wage $45,930. 2 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$57,210a year, loaded
ReceptionistMedian wage $38,010. 6 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$47,340a year, loaded
Executive AssistantMedian wage $76,590. 4 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$95,390a year, loaded
Billing ClerkMedian wage $48,500. 4 of 7 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$60,410a year, loaded
Insurance Claims ClerkMedian wage $49,230. 3 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$61,320a year, loaded
DispatcherMedian wage $50,340. 2 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$62,700a year, loaded
Collections AgentMedian wage $47,030. 2 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$58,580a year, loaded
Legal SecretaryMedian wage $55,570. 3 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$69,210a year, loaded
Payroll ClerkMedian wage $58,260. 1 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$72,560a year, loaded
Data Entry ClerkMedian wage $41,340. 4 of 5 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$51,490a year, loaded
Reservation AgentMedian wage $44,390. 1 of 6 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$55,290a year, loaded
HR AssistantMedian wage $50,610. 4 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$63,030a year, loaded
Order ClerkMedian wage $46,170. 4 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$57,500a year, loaded
Sales
Sales Development RepresentativeMedian wage $69,990. 8 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$87,170a year, loaded
Wholesale Sales RepresentativeMedian wage $72,080. 5 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$89,780a year, loaded
Insurance Sales AgentMedian wage $62,280. 2 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$77,570a year, loaded
Advertising Sales AgentMedian wage $64,820. 4 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$80,730a year, loaded
TelemarketerMedian wage $35,450. 3 of 8 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$44,150a year, loaded
Travel AgentMedian wage $50,160. 2 of 8 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$62,470a year, loaded
Business and finance
AccountantMedian wage $83,680. 5 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$104,220a year, loaded
Project ManagerMedian wage $102,320. 8 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$127,440a year, loaded
HR Specialist or RecruiterMedian wage $75,940. 2 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$94,580a year, loaded
Marketing SpecialistMedian wage $78,760. 3 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$98,100a year, loaded
Management AnalystMedian wage $101,860. 4 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$126,870a year, loaded
Training SpecialistMedian wage $69,280. 6 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$86,290a year, loaded
Event PlannerMedian wage $61,160. 1 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$76,170a year, loaded
Tax PreparerMedian wage $54,920. 4 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$68,400a year, loaded
Management
Marketing ManagerMedian wage $166,790. 6 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$207,740a year, loaded
Property ManagerMedian wage $69,990. 1 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$87,170a year, loaded
Writing, design and media
PR SpecialistMedian wage $74,750. 6 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$93,100a year, loaded
Graphic DesignerMedian wage $62,960. 8 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$78,420a year, loaded
EditorMedian wage $77,920. 5 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$97,050a year, loaded
TranslatorMedian wage $60,170. 6 of 8 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$74,940a year, loaded
Content WriterMedian wage $76,910. 10 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$95,790a year, loaded
Technical WriterMedian wage $90,390. 6 of 8 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$112,580a year, loaded
Video EditorMedian wage $75,420. 6 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$93,940a year, loaded
Computer and IT
Software DeveloperMedian wage $135,980. 8 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$169,360a year, loaded
IT Support SpecialistMedian wage $61,860. 8 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$77,050a year, loaded
System AdministratorMedian wage $99,130. 3 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$123,470a year, loaded
QA TesterMedian wage $104,300. 6 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$129,910a year, loaded
Web DesignerMedian wage $104,000. 9 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$129,530a year, loaded
Web DeveloperMedian wage $92,650. 8 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$115,400a year, loaded
Legal
ParalegalMedian wage $62,890. 3 of 6 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$78,330a year, loaded
Health records
Medical Records SpecialistMedian wage $51,140. 0 of 8 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$63,690a year, loaded
Medical TranscriptionistMedian wage $40,410. 1 of 10 core tasks seen in Claude.ai use.$50,330a year, loaded
Where the numbers come from
The only arithmetic on these pages is the loaded cost: the wage times 1.2455.
- Wages
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Annual figures are the hourly wage times 2,080 hours, as BLS computes them, so they already include pay for paid leave.
- Fully loaded
- BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (2026 Q2), private businesses with 1 to 49 workers: $37.64 an hour in total compensation over $27.88 in wages plus $2.34 in paid leave gives 1.2455. Paid leave sits in the denominator because the annual wage already pays it.
- Tasks
- O*NET 31.0 core tasks, the ten most important by their importance rating. A few occupations list fewer core tasks.
- AI use
- Anthropic Economic Index, release of June 2026, conversations from May 2026. "Did the task" is Anthropic's automation share, where the user directs Claude to do the work; "helped" is augmentation, where the user works with Claude to learn, check or iterate.
- Not measured
- What a particular business pays, and whether an AI system can do a task well. The AI figures count conversations about a task, not jobs replaced.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. AI use data from the Anthropic Economic Index by Anthropic, under CC BY. Wage and benefit data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now put a system beside the salary
The role cost calculator sets a loaded salary against the running cost of an AI system doing the same work, with the build counted in year one.
BLS wages May 2025 · O*NET 31.0 · Anthropic Economic Index